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Library of Congress to preserve local vet stories

B-A students collected 436 interviews

Junior students Max Dearmitt (left) and Jack Showalter inspect boxes of projects with Andrea Brant before they are sent to the Library of Congress. Mirror photo by Russ O’Reilly

BELLWOOD — The stories of hundreds of war veterans from the area are set to be preserved permanently in Washington, D.C., through the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

On Friday, Bellwood-Antis teacher Andrea Brant sent boxes containing 436 interviews, completed over 10 years, to the Library of Congress American Folklife Center.

The most recent interviews include DVDs of video files captured with school-issued iPads as well as a transcript.

“It’s amazing that something I did for school is going to be part of something bigger than Bellwood,” said Jack Showalter, who interviewed his grandfather, a Vietnam War veteran.

Through the years, students have often resisted the assignment, Brant said. But the results have at times been life changing for the students, and for veterans who always wanted to talk about things but never did because no one asked them, she said.

So she started saving the students’ projects 10 years ago.

“Something in the back of my mind said I had to do something bigger with them,” she said.

Brant annually assigns her Problems in Democracy course students to interview a military veteran.

She recently contacted the Library of Congress, which accepted the student projects.

Max Dearmitt, a junior in Brant’s class, interviewed his great-grandfather, who is a World War II veteran.

“It showed me that there is more to war than just fighting. There is so much to the stories about each of the veterans,” he said. “I’m proud our work will affect a large number of people in Washington,” he said.

Brant followed the Library of Congress’ directions to have the veterans complete release forms, but for older projects the library accepted the release forms Brant herself required for the class, she said.

“It’s important because a lot of these stories get lost in history, and when these people pass away, there is no reclaiming them.”

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.

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